Water and Fire
by cristy201
Summary: 15 years after the death of Avatar Aang and after countless battles between the 3 nations, Fire, Water, and Earth, an unsteady peace has settled over the land, but who is to say it will last? 2 unlikely benders will be thrown together in a seemingly impossible adventure that will change the course of history and that will bring them close to death countless times.


**This story takes place in a side universe, exploring the possibilities of an alternate ending to Avatar: The Last Airbender. What if things had gone terribly wrong? The story will mainly consist of all new OCs, with a few appearances from characters from the cartoon, but I wouldn't suggest reading if you only want to see those characters. Though maybe you'll like it anyway! Mature for violence, language, and possibly some scandalous scenes later ;3 **

**I don't own The Last Airbender, but nearly all characters will be mine. Enjoy**

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**Chapter 1  
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With the death of Avatar Aang and rumors of the avatar reincarnation chain being broken, total war had broken out among the nations. With no more air benders alive the fire and earth nation rushed in to claim the high mountains as the water tribes banded together to form one true water nation. The first large battles were between the fire and earth nation over the air benders' deserted land. The water nation took advantage of this and began to attack the fire nation's borders, but the fire nation had been preparing for war much longer than the other two had and easily defended itself on both fronts. Greed grew in the hearts of the earth nation and they soon began to grab at any land they could get, sometimes leading them to attack the water nation as well as fight the ongoing battle with the fire nation. There was no lasting peace between the nations, only temporary truces which often ended up being broken. It became very dangerous to be in a nation that was not the same as your bending abilities or ancestry. Many families relocated themselves for fear of being attacked by their own nation because they did not bend the right element. All of the nations became segregated, cutting off almost all trade with each other. There were many casualties before the fighting cooled off, but the borders were still a place of conflict. It had been fifteen years since the death of the Avatar, and though the fighting had died down, tensions were still high. Every nation suspected the others would attack at any moment and were constantly paranoid…

On the outskirts of the water nation, barely outside of the border that faced the fire nation, camped a small force of fire benders. It was a cold, fall night, the moon shone through sparse breaks in the overcast sky, and frost lay thick on the ground shimmering in the patches of moonlight. The fire benders were all soldiers, sent to infiltrate the water nation. The fire nation had no intention of letting this brief hiatus in fighting last forever, they simply planned to wait for the perfect time to strike, sending in small units of soldiers specialized in stealth to scope out the other nations. This group's mission was no different but little did they know that their plans would soon be thrown off course. Though the groups before now had entered and exited virtually undetected, the water nation had begun to grow wise and quietly reinforced their border patrols. One of these patrols had spotting the unusually close fire benders. The leader of the patrol motioned his group quietly forward fully intending to attack and kill the fire benders. The ground was rocky and dropped off sharply in certain areas. The fire benders were camped with their backs to one such steep slope which allowed them to be naturally protected from one side and leaving the water benders with only the option to attack head on. It was quiet, like the calm before the storm. Then the water benders attacked.

They encircled the camp as best they could and pushed inward, throwing water over the camp fires and plunging the camp into a grey darkness. The fire benders were quick to respond, coming out of their tents with helmets on and swards ready. There was very little to distinguish friend from foe but each side was determined to kill the other. Two combatants in particular were locked in a deadly exchange that brought them closer and closer to the drop off at the edge of the camp. Ice and fire were being hurled so fast that it was just a blur, and the light from the flame lit up the landscape in rapid bursts. Suddenly the two were locked in close quarters combat, their swords out, ready to be plunged into the opponent the first chance they got, but they had completely forgotten about their surroundings and found themselves tumbling head over heels downward off the ledge of the camp. The sword of the water bender was lost on the way down but the fire bender still wielded his in a firm grip. They both struggled to their feet, momentarily disoriented and winded.

The water bender gasped for air and ripped off the cloth wrap that all of the patrol units wore around their heads. Hair as white as the moon fell free and the piercing eyes of a young woman could now be seen locked on the fire bender. Her fair skin seemed to glow in the cold night air even though there was very little light to see by. Very quickly she balled her hands into fists and condensed water around them, freezing it again to create icy, spiked gloves, and leapt towards the fire bender. She easily dodged his sword and came around his body to drive her fist into his sword arm. The blow would have driven the knuckle spikes into his arm but instead they hit something very hard. Immediately she knew she would be at a disadvantage because she wore only a chest plate under her clothes whereas this fire bender had much more she could not see. Though the blow did little damage, it did nock the blade from his hand. He retaliated by sweeping one leg underneath her and knocking her feet out from under her before bringing a flaming fist down towards her grounded body. She rolled out of the way just in time to keep her face from being burnt to a crisp and simultaneously sent spikes of ice up from the ground which rammed into the fire bender's armor, pushing him back. The fire bender grunted in pain, one of the spikes had found a gap in the armor and had driven deep into his shoulder. The water bender wasted no time in exploiting this weakness and sent a barrage of small spikes of ice flying towards him. They ripped at his clothing and bashed into his armor and a few found soft spots in his flesh to imbed themselves in. In seconds a wave of fire was fire was crashing towards the water bender, the heat so intense that the night air was suddenly warm as summer and all the frost in a twenty foot radius had evaporated. She barely escaped the fiery inferno, propelling herself to the side. She could feel the heat burning at her legs and quickly checked to make sure her clothes hadn't caught fire. In that one distracted moment the fire bender took the opportunity to send a shower of fire raining down on her.

She just barely had enough time to pull water from her surroundings to create a shield but it wasn't big enough. Searing pain shot through her leg as a ball of fire connected with her calf. She fell to one knee and quickly extinguished the fire that had caught her clothes but the fire bender was already advancing quickly. In a last ditch attempt she slammed her fist into the ground, pulling water up from the water table. The fire bender must have felt something or sensed what she was doing because he halted just in time to avoid being skewered by large spikes that shot out of the ground directly in front of him. Then, using a burst of fire, he propelled himself over the mound of ice, hurling a fireball directly at the water bender from the peak of his jump. She tried to pull water around herself to shield her from the fire but she was too slow, the fireball drilled through her shield of water and hit her squarely in the chest, knocking her backwards a few feet. Her head smacked against the hard ground and she lay there, motionless with singed skin and clothes slightly smoking. The fire bender landed on the ground, still tense and ready for a counter attack but confident in his victory. He broke off a sharp piece of ice from the spikes he had just avoided and cautiously walked forward. He stood over the girl's body gripping the spike in both hands, raising it up, poised to be driven through the chest of his enemy. He would have much rather finished her off from afar but he had no energy left to bend. He tensed his muscles to drive the spike down but ended up with a face full of freezing water, rushing up his nose and in his mouth. He staggered backwards gasping for air. Before he knew what hit him a solid kick was planted on his stomach, causing him to fall to the ground.

The force knocked his helmet from his head and sent it clattering to the cold ground. In a second the water bender had leapt up, registered the face of a young man, not much more than three or four years older than she, and pinned him under her legs to commence beating the shit out of his face with the remnants of her iced fists. Pieces of bloody ice chipped off as her fists connected with his skull. She also no longer had any more strength left to bend or else she would have slit his throat. The ice on her fists melted more with each punch that landed on the fire bender's abnormally hot skin. The fire bender, finally regaining his senses, heaved upwards suddenly, throwing the water bender off of him. He coughed as he stood, spitting blood onto the ground. The two benders looked at each other, panting for breath, both completely drained of energy, weaponless, driven purely by emotion and adrenaline, but stuck at an impasse. To continue would be to engage in a long, brutal hand-to-hand fight. Death would be slow and painful. There would be no glorious end. Their only hope would be that someone from the main battle would notice them and come to reinforce the fight. There was a quietness that fell over the scene as self-preservation warred with pride. Neither was willing to retreat, and yet there was a high chance that continuing would mean both their deaths. Without any warning a cage a stone sprang up from the ground around the two benders. More stone came out of the ground and wrapped around their wrists and ankles, pulling them down to the ground and immobilizing them.

"What the fuck?!" the water bender swore in shock. Her mind raced to make sense of this new development. Shadowy figures appeared out of the darkness around the cage.

"Well look what we have here," came a gravelly voice from the largest figure, "we've got ourselves a fire bending spy and a water bending soldier, what luck!" He laughed loudly. The water bender hoped someone would hear or notice them, but they were too far away from the main fight to be heard much less seen in this darkness. They were outnumbered and up against fresh soldiers, they didn't have a chance in hell of escaping even if they could combine their strength. If these earth benders chose to kill them they would have no problem in doing so, but she feared they had something much worse in mind. The large earth bender motioned to his men and over half of them broke off to scale the hill side towards the other fighting benders. Both she and the fire bender knew that their friends and comrades would be slaughtered by the new troops that were about to appear. It was a horrifying thought but neither had time to dwell on it because the remaining earth benders began to forcibly move them using ground to incase their bodies. As if they were puppets their weakened bodies were easily manipulated into getting up and following the remaining earth benders away into the darkness. The large earth bender growled over his shoulder

"I'll have fun playing with you two later. I won't keep you waiting long, this fight will be over much too soon." they heard him say as he disappeared into the darkness in the direction of the camp, the last thing to be seen of him were his teeth, gleaming in the darkness as his lips curled back into a sneer.

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**Bear with me, the characters will get much more concrete in the next chapter, which I will do if this one is received well. Please tell me what you think! If there's a problem with the lore of the Avatar world please point it out so I can fix it, I absolutely love the show but I'm not familiar with a lot of the smaller details. **

**Leave a comment, I promise a unicorn will descend on to your lap and bestow upon you a a cookie with my deepest gratitude spelled out in pure rainbow joy!**


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